BALTIMORE – Watching Derek Jeter writhe in pain transported Yankee hearts into their throats. In the sixth inning of a game the Yankees were well on their way to losing, 11-4, to the Orioles at Camden Yards, Jeter took a Rodrigo Lopez fastball on his right thumb.

Instantly, Jeter danced away holding his right arm behind his back. As trainer Steve Donahue looked at the thumb, the Yankees braced for the worst.

After all, Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield are on the DL with left wrist injuries. Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi are battling severe stomach problems.

And Jeter missed two games this past week with a jammed right hand. “Anytime you get hit in the hand it doesn’t feel good,” Jeter said.

While X-rays were negative and Jeter vowed to play tonight when the Yankees open a fourgame electric series against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, it’s not a lock the captain will be in Joe Torre’s lineup.

“I am sure he will want to see me throw first,” said Jeter, who wore a compression wrap on the thumb to keep it from swelling.

Torre understands Jeter’s desire to play all the time. “If there is any chance at all, he will be playing,” Torre said.

Until Jeter got smoked, it was a blah Sunday at Camden Yards.

Aaron Small, who is headed to long relief when Shawn Chacon returns was spanked for seven runs and nine hits in 22/3 innings.

He put the Yankees in a hole so deep they couldn’t crawl out of and ended the road trip 5-2. After going 10-0 last year, Small is 0-3.

Since Scott Erickson hit Kevin Millar in the fifth, it was speculated that Lopez retaliated by hitting Jeter. However, Jeter nor any of his mates believed it.

“I hope not, let’s put it that way,” Torre said.

Down 10-0 in the seventh, the Yankees scored four runs, three on neophyte Kevin Thompson’s double. “We didn’t pitch well enough to expect better results today,” Torre said.

When Small was the darling of New York last summer, he lived on the corners and at the knees.

Yesterday, he couldn’t get to those pitcher-friendly parts of the plate and paid for it.

“Bad location,” Torre said. “He doesn’t have enough velocity to challenge people. He has to locate.” Small believed he did a better job of that in his last outing.

But he didn’t carry it over.

“It’s nobody’s fault but mine, I have to figure it out,” Small said.

“I need to concentrate better.” The Orioles’ assault started early. Ramon Hernandez plated a run in the first with a sac fly and Javier Lopez’s solo homer in the second made it 2-0. Millar and Brandon Fahey homered in the third when the hosts scored five runs and chased Small.

Meanwhile Lopez (4-7) breezed through a lineup that welcomed back A-Rod but was without Giambi.

The loss pushed the Yankees one-half game behind the Red Sox. “We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Torre said.

Work that will be made a lot harder if Jeter’s thumb won’t allow him to throw a ball or grip a bat.